The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center proposes to construct the
Administrative Support Building, which will provide office space for occupants currently located
on the Main Campus and various lease sites, as well as new incremental space to support
institutional growth projections. This project constructs the shell and core of approximately
1,368,600 gross square feet and the build-out of approximately 374,000 net assignable square
feet (NASF), with the remaining 521,612 NASF shelled for future tenant build-out.

Baker Concrete Construction project manager Garrett Benson recently helped coordinate the biggest mat pour he has ever seen. For that matter, it was the biggest mat pour the Houston office of Baker Concrete had ever done.

If research holds true, its the biggest such project ever in Texas and only the second largest in the nation behind the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Baker Concrete Construction, headquartered in Monroe, Ohio, together with Vaughn Construction of Houston, completed the larger of two mat pours for The University of Texas System, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Administrative Support Building in Houston. The size of the mat, itself, is more than 21,000 cubic yds, Benson told Texas Construction.

Baker completed the first pour - 4,000 cu bicyds - at a rate of 570 cubic yds per hour. The larger second pour, completed totaled 17,500 cubic yds, and 100 Baker co-workers pitched in to complete the job in less than 24 hours, at a rate of 730 cubic yds per hour.

The biggest challenge was a matter of coordination, Benson says. We were working 24 hours straight. We were trying to coordinate seven different pumps that have to move to different locations we were making the pour.

Benson says it is bringing 92 trucks from five or six different batches and keep a consistent flow was no easy logistical feat. He says he coordinated more than 100 workers.

You have to keep in mind that you cant let concrete get too far out in front of you, he says. You can only pour one ft an hour and you have to make sure that concrete you have sitting 50 yds in front of you does'nt get old before you get to it. You have to get the pump trucks going and not leave any one pump truck sitting without working. That was another logistical concern.We have to get all this done while still being safe, Benson adds.

Although originally designed to be completed in three separate pours, the hurricane season amended that plan, and New Caney-based Jayco, the rebar subcontractor, worked overtime to complete the installation of steel. That efficiency enabled Baker to merge the second two pours and complete the job early.

The sheer scale of the second pour required detailed logistical planning by team members with Baker; Vaughn; Haynes Whaley of Houston, the engineer of record; WHR of Houston, the architect; and consultants Earth Engineering of East Norriton, Penn; Ulrich Engineers of Houston; and Carrasquillo Associates Ltd. of Austin.

For the job Baker managed a concrete temperature monitoring system that used thermo couplers to record the temperature of the material as it cured. The specifications called for the concrete mix to reach a temperature in the core no higher than 140 degrees Fahrenheit. No two points in the mat could have a temperature difference of more than 40 degrees.

The thermo couplers were located throughout the mat at various depths, and were monitored twice a day for 28 days. The monitoring system allowed Baker to better control the curing process utilizing winter blankets, and ultimately resulted in zero thermal cracks.

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Administrative Support Building is scheduled for completion in 2012. Baker has started the concrete work for the structure.

Since I last went by there in February that building you took a photo of has popped up. Glad to see the stuff actually going through. The TMC is going to be huge in the future. Last time I was there it looked like Dubai with all the construction cranes everywhere.